Reading Between the Lines
by Before We Say Goodbye
Summary: When two great minds go on a seemingly simple mission together, boredom can always reveal what was meant to be seen, and compassion can always mend what is broken. NejiSaku
1. The Break up

Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 1: The Break-up

Sleepless eyes pierced through the night, settling finally on the lithe form of a familiar female with her arm around a not-so familiar man. The holder of the eyes rises, downing the last of his goblet of Merlot in a single swallow. He follows the female, _his_ female, back to her home, glaring daggers at the unfamiliar man the entire way. The female and soon-to-be-suffering male parted with a hug, and the man disappeared in the blink of an eye, dirt swirling a bit where he had been standing but a moment before.

The female walks into her home ignorantly, not noticing the man behind her until she is inside with the door closed securely behind her, the scent of his liquor-filled breath pervading her senses. She quickly backs away from him, knowing how he gets when angry, and sure enough he starts screaming at her about the man she walked home with.

"You're _my_ girlfriend and you have no respect for me? Do you think I am dumb enough for you to cheat on me without my noticing?! Who is that man? He's not even a shinobi! You are sinking low enough to cheat on me with a common villager! I never want to see you with him again! You even had the nerve to start getting intimate with him right in front of me! You know what—" he yelled, but was cut off by the opening of the door.

"What is going on in here? Everyone is complaining about the noise," said the female's neighbor, a kind man in his late twenties named Rei. Rei's eyes narrowed as he noticed how close the other man was to his female neighbor and how his hand was raised as if to strike her. Rei appeared quickly behind the man and restrained him fast, dragging the man away from his neighbor.

"Not this time, Sasuke. I am done with pretending not to notice all of the yelling and how horribly you treat her," Rei hissed as he pulled open the door.

"Well that is good for you," Sasuke began, raising his voice to complete his sentence, "because I am sick of you anyway, our relationship is over, you can go rot in hell, you son-of-a—"

Rei slammed the door closed before Sasuke could finish what he was saying.

"I suggest you get out of my sight before I choose to revert to my better judgment and tell Tsunade-sama of your behavior, I am certain that she would not approve of how you have been treating Sakura. However, if I ever see you anywhere close to her home again, I will not hesitate. It is only out of respect to Sakura that I am not reporting you yet, so leave now," Rei said stiffly, as his speech always fell back to what Sakura called "boring lawyer mode" when he was experiencing a heavy emotion. At this instant, he had a murderous intent that any one of his neighbors could feel, whether they were an experienced shinobi or not, so the formality was to be expected.

Rei let out his breath slowly once the Uchiha faded from sight and he walked back to Sakura's house and knocked on the door.

The lock clicked open and Rei soon saw Sakura's face poking out from between the doorframe and the door itself.

"Sakura, would you like to talk with me about it?" Rei asked, not needing to specify what "it" was since "it" just happened. His voice was still in "boring lawyer mode," but that is what happens when you switch from being the best divorce lawyer in all of Fire Country to being a shinobi, and then go and get angry because Uchiha Sasuke is verbally abusing your best friend.

"Maybe tomorrow, Rei-senpai, but I need some alone time for now," the weary pink-haired maiden replied.

"Okay," Rei said, following that statement with a half-hearted mumbling of something that sounded like "How many times have I told you not to call me '-senpai,' I not that much older than you… you are a much better kunoichi than I am a shinobi… stop calling me '-senpai'"

And for some reason, Rei's mumbles made Sakura smile as she said, "Fine, Rei-_chan_," and slammed her door shut before he could reply. The smile slipped off of Sakura's face once the door closed and she slid into her favorite chair. She put her head in her hands as Sasuke's yells echoed through it, wondering if it was wrong of her to walk home with the boy and give him a hug. Was that against the common courtesy stated in the rules of dating? No, she'd seen Kiba give hugs to Hinata all the time and Naruto never seemed to care. So why was it so wrong for Sakura to give a hug to her friend? The boy was way too young for Sakura anyway, he was only twelve. Sakura supposed that Rei was right; Rei always said that Sasuke was a control freak, that he wasn't worth her time.

Sakura should not have ever agreed to start dating Sasuke, she knew that she felt nothing for him anymore, but she had felt that the feelings would return if they began to date again. They never did. In fact, Sakura began to think less and less of Sasuke to the point where she would have preferred dating Lee to dating Sasuke. Sakura smiled a little at the thought of the hopeless Blue Beast, who was now dating Tenten. Who would have thought that the two would be so perfect for each other? But that thought only made Sakura feel worse, as she felt she had failed Sasuke by disappointing him so much. She knew she hadn't done a thing wrong, but she couldn't bear hurting him, she still cared about him, just not in a romantic way.

She knew that moping would not be productive for anyone though, so Sakura slipped on a pair of shoes and walked outside, quickly returning inside to pick up her coat, as she had forgotten that it was 3:00 in the morning. Her feet subconsciously found the familiar path to the lake that she had visited when she was little. She sat down on the bank and took off her shoes, sinking her feet into the frigid water and laid back, closing her eyes, only to open them a few minutes later as someone sat down beside her.

Sakura bolted upright, fearing that the person was Sasuke, but she soon relaxed as she noticed the abnormally long hair of her new companion. It was Hyuuga Neji.

"Hello Neji-san," Sakura greeted.

"Good morning Sakura-san."

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Sorry that it is an angst-y and somewhat boring beginning, but I felt that this was the right way to start this story off.

Please leave a review if you can and I hope to see you next chapter. Until then, here is a lame joke to entertain you: "I see," said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.


	2. A Friendship

Reading Between the Lines

Chapter Two: A Friendship

"Do you come here often, Neji-san?" Sakura asked, and then berated herself for asking that question afterwards, as it sounded like Sakura was trying to flirt with Neji. But then, maybe she subconsciously was; it was not as if she was blind to Neji's attractiveness.

The slight moonlight bounced along his deep, earthy brown locks of hair, showing that Neji was one boy who knew what conditioner was. His shirt was cut in such a way that you could just barely see his biceps, but the shirt was tight enough to show the strength of those muscles, although not so tight as to over-define his muscles and make him look like his pectorals were bigger than his brain. And the man wonders why so many girls follow him.

"Was that an attempt at flirting, Sakura-san? Just because you have seen more of me than any other woman does not mean I will not turn you down," Neji replied with a smirk.

Sakura would have blushed, except that doing so would have been admitting defeat to the Hyuuga's egotistical comeback. Plus, Sakura was not the "blushing" type anymore; it was almost as if her cheeks had forgotten how to color themselves. Why Sakura would have blushed was because Neji had been referring to a certain mission that the two had been on together where Neji had gotten **very** lucky and the arrow that was aimed his pride hit a very high section of his inner thigh instead. And of course, it ended up being a serious wound, so poor Sakura had to heal it. A certain Hyuuga never let her forget that mission.

"No, I was simply asking how frequently you come to this lake because I would not know the answer to that question, as I have not been to this lake in years." _Not since Sasuke left…_ Sakura added to herself. "But since you mentioned _that_ mission, I think that perhaps you might have been trying to flirt back, Neji-san."

"Why would you suspect such a thing? Suppose I only enjoy reminding you of how you violated me so that I can make you feel uncomfortable."

"Ah, but you constantly remind me of that specific mission, which leads me to believe that you enjoyed that particular healing session. And I do remember hearing a faint groan when I removed my hand from your leg."

Neji turned away, but not before Sakura caught the faint hue of red that clung to his cheeks. When he turned back to face her a second later, the red was gone, but Neji was humbled.

"I miss having these conversations with you; the idiots on my team can never have such a battle of wits with me, let alone win one. Tenten and Lee are either showing some sort of affection to each other, usually sucking each others' faces off, while Gai cheers them on, or Lee tries to have an intelligent conversation with me and ends up talking about Tenten's black panties that have watermelons on them, or Tenten starts talking to me about how she 'puts her weapons to use' with Lee." Naturally, both Sakura and Neji shuddered at those thoughts. Lee and Tenten are a cute couple, but once you started talking about intimacy with them, you would be better off stabbing yourself in the eye repeatedly with a needle.

"I was going to try to make you feel better about yourself by complaining about my team, but there really is not a single thing I can say about them that is anywhere near as bad as the information you just shared with me."

"Oh, that makes me feel just peachy," Neji replied sarcastically.

"Ooh, does that mean I can eat you? I have not had a peach in years!" Sakura said excitedly, and then frowned when she saw the glare Neji gave her. "What? Is it illegal to want a peach?"

"I am allergic to peaches," Neji replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh," was all Sakura could think to say.

Neji gave her an odd look. "And to think I trust you with my health."

"Huh? You are not making any sense, Hyuuga."

"I am not actually allergic to peaches. Seeing as you have been the resident medic for many of the missions that I have gone on, I would think that you would have had the courtesy and forethought to find out my allergies."

"Oh," Sakura said again. "You could have developed the allergy between the time we last had a mission and now! Adult-onset peach allergies might not be very common, but it is possible!"

"I am not allergic to anything now. The only allergy I have ever had was to applesauce when I was three, and I was simply faking that allergy to get out of eating it."

"Well you do not have to make me feel like an idiot while you get your point across, you are really strange, Neji-san."

"I could say the same of you."

"Well I could say that you are a sadistic, manipulative, derogatory jerk."

"And I could say that you are an overly temperamental girl with a strange hair coloring."

"And you have unnaturally feminine features."

"And you have an odd sense of style."

"At least my eyes are a normal color."

"At least my forehead is a normal size."

Now, contrary to what most would say, in that moment Hyuuga Neji was not the smart, sexy man that everyone thought he was. No, he was an idiot for hitting on the childhood defensive instinct that Sakura had developed about her forehead. And he paid for it with a considerable amount of dignity.

A large SPLASH! was heard all throughout the village, and everyone was wondering who had annoyed one of the kunoichi this time.

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I really hope you reviews, reviews make me want to update faster, but when I get no reviews, I feel like no one wants me to update and I get all self-critical. Now that you may feel guilty, review! Thank you for your time. :)


	3. Wet Clothes

Reading Between the Lines

Chapter Three: Wet Clothes

Sakura felt bad about pushing Neji into the lake; even she had not known that she still had a reflex reaction to people insulting her forehead. So she scrambled to pull the seething Hyuuga out of the water, and then quickly closed her eyes in anticipation of whatever his reaction would be. When, after a minute, he did nothing, Sakura slowly opened her eyes and glanced at him quizzically, wondering why he was not mad.

For a moment, all that the now pride-less, dripping wet Hyuuga did was stare right back at Sakura. After that, Sakura was thoroughly confused, because she began to feel as if _she_ was the wet one, and she started to shiver as the wind bit at her wet clothing. Of course, that was the moment that Sakura chose to look down and notice that now she was in the water, still standing in front of Neji. She did not bother to ponder how he had managed to get her into the water without her immediate notice, but instead sufficed to fix the annoying boy with a glare.

Neji stared back, except Sakura did not realize exactly why he was staring. She quietly pulled herself up onto the bank of the river, oblivious to the transparent quality her light pink shirt had taken. Neji followed her out of the water and took hold of her arm, leading her in the direction of the center of the village.

"What are you doing, Neji?" she asked, slightly annoyed that he felt he was allowed to drag her places.

"Saving you from being embarrassed when you arrive home," he replied.

"And how are you managing that? Why would I be embarrassed?"

"…Your shirt"

"What about it?"

Neji fought back several insulting comments about her ignorance, and finally told Sakura to look down.

Sakura's face promptly turned a light shade of pink as she finally understood what Neji meant.

"Oh," she said. "Well, I would not have been very embarrassed because no one else lives with me."

Neji raised an eyebrow, as he had not known that Sakura lived alone. But then, there was much he did not know about her, such as the fact that she was currently single. Not that he cared whether or not he was allowed to be staring at her shirt right now.

Neji shook his head clear of that somewhat pleasant image as the two reached a small shop that was farther away from the town center than those around it. Neji walked into the shop and pulled Sakura in right behind him. He released her arm, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest in order to preserve more of her dignity. All Sakura could think was that she was glad that she had chosen to wear black undergarments today.

"Hello?" Neji called towards the back of the store, craning his neck in an effort to see around a corner.

A short man with long, grey-flecked black tresses appeared, smiling when he saw Neji.

"Hyuuga-san, it is an honor to receive you here again," the man said in warm tones. "And might I ask who your lady friend is?"

"This is Haruno Sakura. She requires a dry clothes and a jacket, because, as you might have noticed, she is both cold and wet."

"Ah, right this way, Haruno-san," the man replied, leading Sakura into a back room and asking her to wait a few moments while he searched for suitable clothes in her size.

Sakura heard Neji thank the man before the man returned with a pale blue sweater and dark cotton pants. Sakura thanked the man herself and he walked back in the direction of Neji. Sakura could sense the man standing by the door, so she moved towards the corner and changed as quickly as she could, muttering the word "pervert" to herself a few times.

When Sakura walked out of the room, she found the elderly man waiting. The man handed her a jacket, and when Sakura asked how much she should pay for all of this, the man declined any payment, and instead winked at Sakura, saying that he had enough payment already.

If Neji was surprised by how quickly Sakura walked out of the store, he did not say anything, but merely chose to carry Sakura's wet clothes for her in silence.

"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to take me to that particular store?" Sakura asked Neji after a few moments of walking.

"There is nothing wrong with that store. Besides, do you know any other store that is open this early in the morning?"

"There was plenty wrong with that store. First of all, the owner is a pervert. Second of all, the man was a pervert. Third of all, the place smelled of vomit, and oh, did I mention that the owner was a pervert?" Sakura asked incredulously.

Neji's eyes showed faint amusement at the idea that the owner of that store was a pervert.

"Really? What makes you think that the man is a pervert?" Neji asked, his voice not betraying his slight amusement.

"He stood outside the door while I was changing. I swear that he was peeping."

"That is interesting," Neji said, but without the sarcasm that Sakura would expect of such a sentence.

"How is that interesting? Are you disappointed that you could not acquire a peek?"

"I have seen plenty of the female parts; do you forget the promiscuous fanatics that are often bothering me? And that is interesting because the owner is not interested in women, he happens to be gay."

Sakura muttered something barely audible.

"Excuse me?" Neji asked, unsure if she had said what he thought she said.

"I said 'You would know, Hyuuga.'"

"Are you implying that I am also interested in males?"

"Well I am certainly not denying it," Sakura quipped.

"What would lead you to such a conclusion?"

"Would you really like the whole list? There is your very feminine hairstyle, your type of friends, the fact that there are males that pursue you, the fact that you are not denying that you are gay, and that you show no attraction towards females," Sakura accused.

"My hair makes me look sexy, my choice in friends has nothing to do with my sexual orientation, I do not know of any males that interested in me sexually, and I show no attraction towards females because there are no females that are worth such an effort. But I assure you, Haruno, I am not gay," Neji said, almost as if he was reciting a list, which made Sakura wonder how many times he had been accused of being homosexual. "Besides," he continued. "If I was gay, then you would not be feeling so sexually attracted to me right now."

Sakura looked away as she felt the familiar slight burning sensation behind her cheeks that indicated she was blushing.

"You wish, Hyuuga."

"Maybe I do, Haruno," Neji replied, his face not giving away a single hint as to whether or not he was being serious.

* * *

:) Chapter three, finally. I am sorry it took so long; I have a lot of school work (high school is fun, but only when you do not have so much work). I will try to update at least weekly, though.


	4. Master Thief

Reading Between the Lines

Chapter Four: Master Thief

Sakura woke up to the faint sound of a microburst of wind and saw a familiar kunai lodged in her wall— just above her favorite vase, where it was always thrown. Tenten loved to do that to her, just to test her patience, but Sakura knew it was business when she saw the note that fluttered through the window. It was a summons to the gates, and she was to pack enough clothing for at least three days.

She sighed, her pink hair fluttering in front of her face, as she quickly showered and changed into mission-sufficient clothing. More clothing and her favorite bottle of shampoo made their way into a small bag.

This mission summons was out of nowhere; Sakura had been off the active duty list for a month as she had been working purely at the hospital in order to be more available for Sasuke. Perhaps Tsunade had gotten wind of what happened from Rei; Rei was always looking out for her, he would know that a mission would be a perfect way to settle her winding emotions.

But the mission seemed a little too soon, Sakura had not even had the time to think about the smirk she knew she saw on Neji's face when she thanked him for his courtesy in getting her clothes and in walking her home. And she had actually hoped to catch Neji on his way out of the Hokage tower to meet him for lunch. Not that she wanted to see him; he just mentioned that he tired of seeing his teammates so often.

Another sigh escaped Sakura's lips as she neared the village gates; the civilian boy she had hugged yesterday was standing near them. There was no way to stop the surge of hurt and regret when she saw the boy, but what Sakura could accomplish was to keep the troubled expression from surfacing on her face.

"Hey, Kaito, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked, allowing curiosity to explain the odd movement of her chakra. Only someone with the Byakugan would notice the change in flow, but you never knew if a Hyuuga was near.

"Sakura-chan! Are you one of the ninja that is supposed to help escort me? I asked specifically for you, but I did not think they would agree.

"I do not know; all I know is that I am here for a mission," Sakura replied, holding back a frown. Escorting the boy did not seem like the proper mission to help soothe her torn heart.

"Then allow me to enlighten you with the details of the mission," said an unnaturally smug voice from behind Sakura.

_I was not paying attention: that was how he snuck up on me. It is _**not**_ because I trust him enough to let my guard down, _Sakura assured herself before turning to face the familiar quirk of lips and twinkle of eyes that meant Hyuuga Neji was feeling particularly arrogant.

"I did not know that the mission was so special as to need to be hand-delivered to me by an ANBU operative," Sakura continued suspiciously. If Neji was here to give her the mission, that likely meant that…

"It is _our_ mission, not just "the" mission," Neji clarified.

Sakura waited patiently for him to give her the details, but after a minute, she realized he was enjoying his position of power too much to hand over his knowledge of the mission.

"Would you like to tell me what we must do now?" Sakura asked. "Because all that Tenten told me was to pack enough clothing for three days."

Neji seemed surprised that Sakura knew Tenten left the note, but he quickly found another way to annoy Sakura.

"Well, since you were incapable of acquiring knowledge of the mission on your own, I believe you might need to suffer before I give it to you. What will you give me for the mission details?" Neji asked, keep his face perfectly straight.

"A black eye and the inability to reproduce," Sakura growled, knowing that she was just as entitled to the information as Neji was. "Oh, and there just _might_ be some hair-pulling."

"Would you rather trust me to take you there myself?"

"Sakura-chan," interjected Kaito suddenly.

"Hold on, Kaito. That would be a danger to the mission and you know it," Sakura said, giving Kaito a quick glance.

"I am perfectly capable of performing this mission alone," Neji said, daring her to challenge his statement.

"Sa-ku-ra!" Kaito exclaimed, still trying to get her attention.

"Hold on a minute, Kaito," she said, then directed her attention to Neji. "Really? Then why was I also assigned to it?"

"Because you were specially requested by the client," Neji explained, his slight annoyance at that fact only visible in the split-second flare of his chakra. Did it offend him that someone specifically wanted her? Or was it that he was annoyed to also have to go?

"SAKURA-CHAN!" yelled Kaito.

Sakura whipped around to face him, an exasperated look on her face. "What do you need, Kaito?"

"Here," he said, handing her a sheaf of papers.

Sakura looked down at the papers and quickly realized what they were.

"The mission description? Did you get this from Neji's pocket?" Sakura wondered aloud, and the proud smile on Kaito's face told her everything she needed to know. And the mad patting motion that Neji was in the middle of only confirmed her suspicions.

"Aww, Kaito, you're the best," Sakura said, gracing said 12-year-old with a hug and doing her best to annoy Neji. "You showed big bad Neji-kun who is the cleverer one, good for you. I just _knew_ Neji loved being touched by men."

Neji simply stood seething and confused as he watched Sakura reward the civilian boy that managed to pilfer his pocket. His _front_ pocket. Without him noticing.

* * *

Ooh, and the seemingly random twelve-year-old makes an appearance! Tune in next time to see if Neji can redeem himself. ;)

Sorry for the long expanse of no updates, I had finals and summer music rehearsals and I forgot my password for this site along with my email password, so it took a while to get that back in order.

Please review, this took me the better part of an hour (although I may have gotten distracted a bit)!


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